Study: Arsenal Is The Fifth-Most Valuable Club In The Premier League, Tottenham Is Tops

The coronavirus has hit the English Premier League very hard as the hiatus has put a number of teams in dire financial situations. According to the Daily Mail, a number of teams across the country are facing the possibility of going under unless the game returns soon. Of course, club values are going to take a beating but in the meantime, the University of Liverpool Management School has completed a study that has calculated the value of all of every single Premier League club and you might be surprised at who is in first place. Remember, this study does not factor the COVID-19 pandemic and team values are estimated as of the end of 2019. Nonetheless, the rankings are quite interesting to note.

Tottenham EPL’s Most Valuable Franchise?

In what may be a surprise to many, it’s been revealed that Tottenham is the most valuable club in the Premier League, putting them ahead of giants Manchester United and Liverpool. That stunning piece of news comes from a university study that used large sets to data to determine the all-around value of the clubs. Spurs value has been put at £2.568 billion, which is a sizable jump from 2018 when they were third at £1.837 billion.

Liverpool can’t be happy with the news – especially after winning the Champions League – as they’re merely fourth on this list. The study did show that winning the Champs League helped Liverpool’s value but they still lagged behind the top three. Winning the 2019-20 Premier League title would surely have helped too. The sportsbooks had them as a massive favourite to seal the deal but with the league being postponed, who knows when or if they’ll get back to action. We’ve already seen France’s Ligue 1 get cancelled as well as the Eredivisie in the Netherlands.

At any rate, Liverpool had a seemingly insurmountable lead at the time of postponement as they were on 82 points – clearly running away with it – while Manchester City was a distant second on 57 points.

Arsenal Fifth-Most Valuable, According To Study

Arsenal landed fifth on the list as they were beaten out by Tottenham, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool. Arsenal is currently valued at £1.4 billion, which is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s not enough to get them higher on the list. They’ll be happy to note that they’re still valued at £200 million more than Chelsea and also beat out clubs like Leicester City, Newcastle and Burnley.

Arsenal is currently ninth in the standings table with 40 points. They’re the only team in the Top 10 that has yet to register double-digit wins but their 13 draws are tied for the most in the EPL.

How The Club Value Was Determined

So how did the University of Liverpool Management School come up with their calculation? Well, it’s the second year in a row that they’ve run the study and the formula that they use incorporates several factors. They evaluate the wage cost, the stadiums, the results – among other things. What landed Tottenham at the top of the list is that they did more with less than a number of other clubs. For example, Tottenham managed to deliver a Championship League final as well as a top-four result in the Premier League, but take note of the budget. They spent anywhere between £100-150 million less than the six major players. That means the club was able to earn a 21% increase in income since just 39% of the budget went to wage cost – the lowest in the Premier League. To put that in perspective, clubs like Leicester City spent 84% of their budget on player wages. The other key factor was the stadium, which delivers lots of commercial revenue for Tottenham.

The researchers noted that they expect a huge drop in value when they run this study next time around as the coronavirus pandemic and the shutdown is going to have a significant impact on the clubs’ value.

At any rate, some people will still find this study hard to believe. Is Tottenham really the most valuable club in England or is this study just one, carefully curated way of looking at the numbers? It’s hard to say but it’s still quite surprising to see Tottenham at the top of this list.